Manaweft Sliver , the Underused
Standard forum
Posted on April 24, 2014, 11:53 a.m. by CaptainCaveman
Does anyone else think that somehow Manaweft Sliver got pushed to the sidelines for some reason that i can not think of or am missing? If anyone can shed some light on this "injustice" / mystery that would be great because i do not see any reason why Manaweft Sliver could/should not be a viable mana alternative in any deck that can generate green. Especially if you are looking at going ramp or 5 color. Pros and Cons welcome.
If you aren't running slivers, its not useful enough. Elvish Mystic is a turn earlier, which is very important to ramp, so Manweft won't replace that. That leaves the other two drops in green Sylvan Caryatid and Voyaging Satyr (really, this leaves Sylvan Caryatid ). The Caryatid can't be targeted and has three toughness, which helps against both control and aggro, making it the smart choice for most decks running green. The Satyr is explosive with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx , and nets the same mana otherwise plus an extra toughness. If you need to run more than 8 mana dorks, you have too much ramp.
tl;dr Manaweft is only powerful in sliver decks. There are three better options outside of it.
April 24, 2014 12:05 p.m.
Agreeing to the above comments and I will now add some pros to it that I have seen in the past.
I have seen this card be used outside of sliver decks in one, very effective (but not very consistently) way.
T1 - Galerider Sliver
T2 - Manaweft Sliver
Just run 2 playsets of both. This gives you air defender (or attackers) and a total potential of 8 mana of any color. On T3, you can have 6 mana and 3 flyers if you dropped a second Galerider Sliver T2. The potential is there, but not as consistent because you rely on 1 of 4 cards in your deck to be drawn in any game.
It's just something I've seen. Works amazingly when played the way I mentioned, but is overall inconsistent and not worth the 8 slots.
April 24, 2014 12:22 p.m.
CaptainCaveman says... #5
@ raithe000 i completely understand and agree with what you said , i know of all those options and do and have used all of them in decks , i guess i was thinking really not as a substitution but in Addition to those options .... running more than 8 mana dorks or more importantly in 5 color. @ gufymike As far as "slivers not being a thing" that to me is not a con at all , i mean the same arguement can almost be made about any card , elves are not really a thing in standard but we see Elvish Mystic everywhere.
April 24, 2014 12:24 p.m.
marcosousasr, it is part of the reason, regardless if you like it or not. If slivers where a thing, it would see more play instead of the caryatid and mystic. Though, raithe000 hit it perfectly.
April 24, 2014 12:27 p.m.
CaptainCaveman says... #7
@ gufymike i understand what you mean , it is part of the mind set out there and that is definitely a reason as to why it sees limited play , so in those terms i agree with you @ Dreno33 great example of it getting some play but i think you hit it on the head when you mentioned how inconsistent it could be
April 24, 2014 12:35 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #8
I could see it being more useful than the plantchick if there was a creature similar to Hellrider in standard, and you wanted both ramp (multi-colour) and a lot of creatures all attacking at once.
April 24, 2014 4:09 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #9
The problem with using a lot of mana dorks to fuel some sort of crazy 5 colour chromanticore deck or some such, is that it's really easy to disrupt.
Doom Blade and now my Desecration Demon attacks, you are 1 red mana off playing one of the two chromanticores in the deck, and your opponent would just love you to play one, so he can kill it and make you sad.
April 24, 2014 4:12 p.m.
ChrisHansonBiomancin says... #10
The main arguments have already been presented- Sylvan Caryatid is almost strictly better, Elvish Mystic is cheaper and thus better if you're Green-heavy, etc.
I see two realms of playability for Manaweft Sliver - obviously, the first would be a Slivers tribal deck. The second would be a deck in which you want your mana dorks to become attackers, which clearly falls into the "janky homebrew" category. Since jankiness is my specialty, I have a deck drawn up (which has never seen tournament play) that utilizes Manawefts as well as Mystics and Satyrs to ramp into mass pumps like Collective Blessing , Dictate of Heliod , and Bestowers like Boon Satyr and Eidolon of Countless Battles to give opponents the uncomfortable choice of whether to Doom Blade a dork. Such a deck is about the only non-Sliver deck that I can see where Manawefts are actually an upgrade over Caryatids.
April 24, 2014 6:04 p.m.
Schuesseled: Chromanticore is black, so it doesn't die to Doom Blade . I agree with your argument, but just sayin'
April 25, 2014 6:34 a.m.
Schuesseled says... #12
I was talking about doom blading mana dorks to prevent you casting anything.
gufymike says... #2
Slivers are just not a thing and Sylvan Caryatid exists, which is strictly better.
April 24, 2014 12:02 p.m.